Summary

This brief rhetoric of argument with an anthology of readings on contemporary issues takes a non-Toulmin based approach to writing arguments in an electronic age. By stressing the rhetorical situation and the audience, the rhetoric avoids complicated terminology in favor of providing students with the practical means to find good reasons for the positions they want to advocate. The rhetoric includes readings by professional and student writers, including a pivotal selection from Rachel Carson's extraordinarily influential argument, Silent Spring. The anthology reprints over 60 arguments on interesting current issues: the environment, affirmative action, censorship, Title IX, substance abuse, gay rights, and the body.

Table of Contents

Alternate Table of Contents: Types of Arguments

xv

Preface

xxi

Part I Persuading with Good Reasons: What Do We Mean by Argument?

1

(106)

What to Argue About

5

(26)

A Book That Changed the World

5

(2)

Why Silent Spring Became a Classic

7

(6)

Tactics of Silent Spring

9

(3)

Analyzing Arguments: Pathos, Ethos, and Logos

12

(1)

Reading Arguments

13

(3)

TIPS Reading with a Pencil in Your Hand

14

(2)

Finding Arguments

16

(2)

Position and Proposal Arguments

16

(2)

``The Obligation to Endure''

18

(4)

Rachel Carson

``Hand-Me-Down Poisons''

22

(9)

Theo Colborn

Dianne Dumanoski

John Peterson Myers

Getting Started: Listing and Analyzing Issues

26

(2)

Getting Started: Making an Idea Map

28

(3)

Persuading with Good Reasons

31

(22)

The Basics of Arguments

31

(4)

TIPS What Is Not Arguable

34

(1)

The Basics of Reasoning

35

(2)

Finding Good Reasons

37

(7)

Can You Argue by Definition---from ``the Nature of the Thing''?

38

(1)

Can You Argue from Value?

39

(1)

Can You Compare or Contrast?

39

(1)

Can You Argue from Consequence?

40

(2)

Can You Counter Objections to Your Position?

42

(1)

Questions for Finding Good Reasons

43

(1)

Supporting Good Reasons

44

(2)

Deciding Which Good Reasons to Use

46

(1)

``Just Take Away Their Guns''

47

(6)

James Q. Wilson

Getting Started on Your Draft

51

(2)

Thinking More about Your Audience

53

(20)

What Exactly Is an Audience?

53

(1)

Readers Do More Than Absorb Information

54

(3)

Readers Begin with Purposes

55

(1)

Readers Begin with Expectations

56

(1)

Readers Compose as They Read

56

(1)

Readers React to What They Read

56

(1)

Constructing Your Readers

57

(1)

Who Will Read Your Argument?

57

(2)

What Does Your Audience Already Know---and Not Know?

58

(1)

What Are Your Audience's Attitudes toward You?

58

(1)

What Are Your Audience's Attitudes toward Your Subject and toward What You Want to Say?

58

(1)

Why People Reach Different Conclusions from the Same Evidence

59

(7)

How Different Assumptions Produce Different Claims from the Same Evidence

65

(1)

Creating Your Readers

66

(2)

``Marlboro College'' from The Fiske Guide to Colleges 1993

68

(5)

Getting Started: Writing for Particular Audiences

72

(1)

The Style of Arguments

73

(34)

Facts Alone Do Not Persuade

73

(5)

Ethos: Creating an Effective Persona

78

(4)

Advice on Argument from Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

82

(1)

Choosing an Appropriate Voice

82

(7)

TIPS Strong Beginnings

87

(2)

Pathos: Appealing to Your Reader's Values

89

(2)

TIPS Strong Endings

90

(1)

The Language of Arguments

91

(4)

``Scenes from an Execution''

95

(12)

Christopher Hitchens

Steps in Writing a Rhetorical Analysis

104

(3)

Part II Some Types of Arguments: Options for Arguments

107

(100)

Definition Arguments

111

(20)

``Setting the Record Straight''

118

(8)

Scott McCloud

``Cheerleading Is a Competitive Sport''

126

(5)

Meghann O'Connor

Steps in Writing a Definition Argument

129

(2)

Causal Arguments

131

(22)

``Channel Surfing''

141

(12)

Douglas Rushkoff

Steps in Writing a Causal Argument

151

(2)

Evaluation Arguments

153

(16)

``In Colonial Williamsburg, the New History Meets the Old''

160

(4)

Eric Gable

Richard Handler

``The Diet Zone: A Dangerous Place''

164

(5)

Natascha Pocek

Steps in Writing an Evaluation Argument

167

(2)

Narrative Arguments

169

(12)

``The Border Patrol State''

173

(8)

Leslie Marmon Silko

Steps in Writing a Narrative Argument

179

(2)

Rebuttal Arguments

181

(14)

The Faculty of the University of Washington, ``Open Letter to Governor Gary Locke and the 2020 Commission on the Future of Higher Education''